Selective Blindness
by bridgetlynn
Summary: Fiona is a wallflower that no one really ever notices; all the while she notices the things around Angel Grove no one else seems to. It's a blessing and a curse in her life. When Tommy Oliver moves to town all the pieces of the puzzle fall into place for her and she finds herself keeping the biggest secret ever known...even more importantly - the fact that she knows it at all.


**Disclaimer: **The Power Rangers franchise is (currently) owned by SCG Power Rangers LLC and was created by Toei Company and Haim Saban. If I owned it, or was making any money off of this, I'd be too busy to write fanfic in the first place.

**Author Note:** This one-shot is the result of an evening involving_ far _too much wine. A few friends and I were sitting around my living room and started out by discussing the fact that 'nerd culture' has become vogue over the last few years (personally I blame Robert Downey Jr. and Iron Man for it; and, I'd like to punish him thoroughly, and privately - but that's another story). We noted how the things we were interested in (ie: comics, cosplay/conventions, anime, etc.) that had gotten us mass amounts of grief in high school (and even college) for being 'uncool' were suddenly all over the place in main stream media and considered 'hip' and 'quirky' now. Somehow, as we grew more intoxicated, this led to us discussing various super-heros and secret identities and, I quote, "how the hell no one ever figured some of that shit out?" Cause some of the characters were so obvious about it. The biggest example thrown around by everyone were the various incarnations of Power Rangers. One friend suggested I write something on the subject...and there my muse took over. As of right now this is a one-shot; but, I have some ideas, if there is interest, on how to expand it into either a longer story or a series of one-shots.

**Story Note: **I feel like I need to point out that it is 2014 and while I basically didn't miss an episode of Power Rangers during the MMPR/Zeo/Turbo seasons (which, despite cast changes really can be all lumped together as one 'era') that started back in '93 and I was all of ten years old (20 flippin years ago - geez I'm old). The show also had a pretty fast and loose timeline that retconned a lot of stuff when it felt like it. I also don't have DVDs to research and I haven't actually seen an early season episode since probably high school; soooooo, if anyone is super canon sensitive, I'm giving a warning that I tried to use a bit of logic to figure out a timeline that kind of makes sense. Also, other then spell-check this is pretty unedited.

* * *

"Sometimes I wonder if one of those monsters that started popping up back in October cast an oblivious spell on this whole damned town and just somehow managed to miss me," Fiona Kelly muttered to herself as she peeked around her locker and in the direction of the not at all hidden alcove diagonally across the hall from her. "Cause I can't be the only person who thinks five teenagers standing around talking into a fucking watch is normal."

She rolled her eyes when she spotted Jason Lee Scott, a fellow freshmen, glance around the hallway before shuffling back further into the wall while bringing his other hand up to shield his watch from view.

"Oh yea," she mumbled. "That's not at all obvious."

The other four teens with him were also members of her freshmen class and the five had all been friends since grade school. Fiona had, personally, always found their friendship to be interesting. Mostly because it had never truly made sense in the hierarchy that existed once you entered junior high.

Now, Angel Grove hardly had a huge school district so it wasn't as though she didn't know the five of them personally. They had just never really socialized with each other once they had all reached an age where you stopped inviting your entire class to your birthday parties.

First there was Kim Hart, she was an athlete like Jason. A gymnast and cheerleader to his martial artist and football player. Their friendship had always made sense to Fiona's carefully ordered world-view. They had both always fell fairly 'middle-of-the-pack' in overall popularity; mostly because they weren't cruel enough to single out the so-called 'geeks' and actually harass them but at the same time they weren't exactly going around stopping the bullying either.

Unless you were Billy Cranston or Trini Kwan.

Now, Billy and Trini also made sense to Fiona. If only because they were both walking stereotypes. Trini, the brilliant Asian. Billy, the walking encyclopedia. That Trini was incredibly beautiful, and well dressed, helped her make her own way right up to Jason and Kim's standing socially. Billy on the other hand; well, Fiona would put money on the fact that without Jason, Kim and Trini's backing Billy would spend time daily becoming acquainted with the inside of his locker.

Then there was Zack Taylor; the odd-ball of their group. Singing, dancing and acting a clown. Academically he wasn't anything special. She had never seen him play an organized sport either. But somehow, he fit. Balanced them perhaps.

And Fiona hadn't cared one whit about what they were doing until mid-November. It was mid-January now. That was three months to notice things and drive herself nuts trying to figure out why the five teens had suddenly started isolating themselves from any other friends, dropped activities that weren't their 'main' talent and started randomly disappearing for hours on end.

That was without even getting into their apparent new fascination with singular colors.

As the thought passed her mind her eyes met Jason's from across the hallway and his narrowed at her suspiciously. Fiona merely smiled, waved slightly and closed her locker before walking away down the hallway.

"Yea, they aren't up to anything at all," she whispered, shaking her head and leaving to head home for the day. It was Friday, mid-terms were finally over and the only thing she wanted to think about at the moment was a long, hot bath followed by a weekend of watching movies alone in the house until her parents got home on Sunday night.

* * *

"Fiona? We're home! Are you here sweetheart?"

Fiona's head shot up from the couch in the living room at the sound of her mother's voice echoing through the large house, simultaneously cutting into her movie's dialogue, and she groaned.

"So much for hoping they'd extend _this _trip," she grumbled. "Yea, I'm in the living room Mom!" she called back at a higher volume, not bothering to move an inch. If her parents could spend half the year traveling around the world dealing with ' ' their international R&amp;D company and leave her home alone when monsters had started tearing up her hometown on a regular basis then they could lug their own damned suitcases into the house.

"There you are!" Joyce Kelly's voice once again interrupted 'Chaplin', which had just come out on VHS and Fiona had been looking forward to watching uninterrupted as she hadn't been able to see it in the movie theater. "What are you watching?"

"Chaplin," she replied simply. "It's good. I haven't seen it yet. Plus, Robert Downey Jr. is sexy," she added, hoping her mother would get the hint to leave her alone.

"It's only five o'clock on a Sunday. Why are you watching a movie and, apparently fantasizing about a man over ten years older then you, instead of going out with friends?"

Fiona groaned and hit pause on the remote before replying, "Oh I don't know. Maybe because it's five o'clock on a Sunday and I'm fourteen. Normal parents would be expecting me to be home right now."

"Don't take that tone with me young lady," Joyce snapped back at her daughter. "If you actually talked to people you might have a social life or even a single friend."

"I do talk to people," Fiona insisted in reply. "And I do so have friends! I talked to April on the phone two hours ago."

"April?"

"April Halloway. You remember her; little blonde who lives down the block. _Her_ parents let her go to that boarding school in Chicago when the mutant freaks started popping up everywhere around here."

"Talking on the phone is not the same as a social life."

"I notice you ignore the reference to things that could prevent my continued good health?"

"You're perfectly safe in Angel Grove. We have Power Rangers," her mother insisted, leaving Fiona to only reply with an obvious eye roll. "What was that look for?"

"The Power Rangers Mom? Really? 'Cause they don't do just as much damage stomping around in giant robots. It's like Angel Grove got picked up and dropped into a Transformers cartoon."

"You're too cynical for your age," Michael Kelly, Fiona's father interjected from the doorway to the living room.

"I'm fourteen and I basically raised myself with the help of a housekeeper. You're lucky all I am is cynical," she responded dryly and turned off the tv. "I'm going to sleep. I have school in the morning. When are you leaving again?"

"Wednesday," Michael replied and squeezed her shoulder as she walked past.

"Peachy," Fiona muttered, hurrying up the stairs and slamming her bedroom door as she walked through it. "Fucking peachy."

Three hours later she jumped and dropped the comic book she had been reading at the sound of an explosion in the distance. A quick glance out her window showed a giant bug-shaped thing battling a large robot over the warehouse district.

"Well, at least they kept it away from downtown...this time," she grumbled and shook her head. "Power Rangers...oh yes, I feel so much safer now."

Her eyes kept trailing back to the battle and her mind kept cycling thoughts as she tried to force herself to finish the newest X-Men comic she had picked up that morning and for some reason she kept thinking about the non-verbal exchange she had with Jason on Friday along with his garishly bright red shirt.

"No," she insisted to the empty bedroom. "There is no fucking way...right?"

* * *

The next morning found Fiona in quiet thought, and barely paying attention to her surroundings, as she made her way through the crowded hallway towards her locker. The niggling thought at the back of her mind that she had considered the evening before would not leave her alone. No matter how much she insisted to her subconscious that it was ridiculous.

After all, who the hell would give high school freshmen, the oldest of which wouldn't even be fifteen until the following month, super powers?

She briefly considered that the five friends had started doing secret spy work for the CIA (she was sure the CIA would have watches you could converse with) because that actually made more sense to her then them being Power Rangers. The CIA theory was immediately thrown out as she realized that Billy was probably the only one who, at the moment, had the intelligence to possibly qualify if they had some child-genius program.

"I slept worse then I thought if I'm thinking CIA is a rational explanation," she half laughed at herself and the random thoughts that were popping into her brain and then groaned as seconds later she hit a body and then the floor, hard.

"I am so sorry," a male voice spoke from above her and Fiona opened her eyes to be met with a shocked, but quite lovely, brown pair. "I wasn't watching where I was going," the boy, who looked about her age, began rambling.

"No, it's alright. I'm pretty sure this was at least half my fault," she cut him off before he could keep apologizing and started pushing herself up off the floor, only to grab the hand that was stuck in front of her. "So, who're you?" she added upon realizing that she had actually never seen the person in front of her before.

"Umm, I'm, umm, Tommy Oliver," he replied, sounding and looking far too nervous for someone of his outward appearance. Boys that looked like this Tommy-shaped person did _not _stutter.

They especially did not stutter, and half-blush, in front of girl's that looked like Fiona Kelly. She was short and curvy; and while no one could really call her 'fat' they could hardly call her 'skinny' either. Her hair came just past her shoulders in a shade of brown that couldn't seem to decide between chestnut and dark-auburn on a given day, depending on sun exposure. While her eyes were stuck somewhere between blue and grey. Finally, her nose was a little too big, though she could admit that her cheekbones and chin were nice.

She wasn't the type of girl to think herself ugly; even if she knew she'd never grace the cover of magazines. Simply put, to Fiona, she was the very definition of average.

The boy in front of her however had at least six or seven inches on her five foot nothing height; and considering how close he looked to her age she would guess he was due for a growth spurt or two over the next three years. He also looked fairly fit, despite his loose fitting shirt. Add in the very nice hair and a bone structure models would kill for and you had a very nice looking young man.

The stutter and blush made her immediately like him; if only because Angel Grove didn't need another suburban, holier then thou jock in it's halls. The fact that he was very pretty did not hurt in the least.

"I'm Fiona Kelly. It's very nice to meet you Tommy. I'm assuming you're new?" she told him, giving him what she hoped was a welcoming smile and shaking his hand that she realized she was still holding before dropping it quickly.

Her mother apparently wasn't completely wrong about her socialization issues.

"You're assuming correctly," he responded, still looking nervous but relaxing minutely when she didn't verbally rip his head off for knocking her over, despite what she said seconds earlier about it being her fault. "Do you know where the office is?"

She nodded and replied, "Follow me. It's kind of confusing."

"Oh, I, I don't want to make you late?"

"I have history with Appleby first period. You'd be doing me a favor," she insisted. "Let's call me getting a late pass for helping out the new student payment for trying to give me a concussion," she joked and started walking, smirking when he quickly followed her, carefully maneuvering his larger frame between students while she easily slipped through the crowd. "So what year are you?"

"Huh?" he mumbled, looking around the school at doors and signs and she almost laughed as she realized he was trying to memorize the hallways of the school. "Oh, freshmen."

She nodded and told him simply, "Me too."

They walked for another minute and finally Tommy asked, "No interrogation as to why I transferred?"

"Don't really care honestly," Fiona told him point blank and almost enjoyed the surprised look on his face. "If you wanted to tell me you would. Bottom line, it's not really any of my business."

Tommy tilted his head and considered her for a moment before nodding and responding, "My Dad's job transferred him."

"There you go," she replied. "And here we are," she added, reaching for the door to the office and jumping back as his hand reached it first as he pulled it open and gestured for her to go in. "A gentlemen too huh? Oh the girl's here are going to line up for you."

"Will you be on that line?" he questioned cheekily, a bit of what she assumed was his personality when he wasn't terrified out of his wits showing through.

"Nope," Fiona told him simply and shrugged when he looked slightly disappointed. "Why do you want me to be?" she added, making her grin slightly less welcoming and a little more predatory.

She almost laughed when Tommy blinked, took a step back and replied, "I'm not sure. You might scare me a little."

"Well, I'm insulted then. I was going for 'a lot'."

"Oh, well, keep trying and I'm sure you'll get there," the humor slipped back into his voice as he finally realized she had been kidding.

She waited as he walked up to the desk and collected a schedule, locker number and school handbook before asking for a late pass for the both of them upon seeing they had the same first period class.

"Come on," she hurried him along the empty hallway minutes later, the bell had rung almost twenty minutes prior to them being done in the office.

"I thought you wanted to miss first period?" Tommy questioned her as he was led to his new locker.

"I want to be_ late_. I don't want to miss the class. Late doesn't count as an absence. Absences however mean pop quizzes. And please don't ask me to explain the logic of quizzing a student over material they have missed."

Little more was said between the two as they finally reached the classroom, handed over their late slips and Tommy was directed to his new seat, while Fiona slipped into her usual one in the middle of the row closest to the windows.

A few minutes before the bell rang she glanced up, intending on catching Tommy's attention so she could show him to his next class, and frowned at the sight that met her eyes.

Kim Hart, smiling coyly and shyly and talking quietly to the very person Fiona had been intending on catching the attention of. And rather then the somewhat nervous and apprehensive expression Tommy had worn nearly the entire time he was in Fiona's presence he sported a confident smile and had relaxed his entire body language.

Apparently sweet and tiny cheerleader-type wins out over sarcastic and curvy wallflower once again.

"Oh well," she mumbled and immediately put the thought out of her mind. It's not like it was the first time something like this had happened, nor would it be the last.

Besides, she figured with the way Kim and her friends had been acting lately, Tommy would soon find himself getting bored with the tiny brunette running off to save the world, or whatever the hell they were all up to and Fiona was fine with picking up the slack.

* * *

The next few weeks passed by like a blur to Fiona and all the while the ridiculous idea that she was classmates with the Power Rangers started to make more sense as she observed them getting sneakier and always running off right before a monster attack. By the beginning of March she was fairly convinced of it. Even if it did make her consider seeking psychiatric help for her belief.

Either that or she really needed to get her eyes checked. Personally, she'd take needing glasses over being insane.

Because Fiona had just seen them...change...or morph...or whatever it was they did to get magically dressed into fucking shiny day-glo spandex in a light show that would rival the fourth of July in the middle of daylight in the damned park.

And once again had her wondering if one of those monsters had done something to the rest of the population of Angel Grove because how the hell was _she_ the only one noticing this shit? Also, she couldn't help but wonder how their parents don't notice them not in bed in the middle of the night when there are giant robots rampaging around town? And if their parents did notice, how they explained it.

Her thoughts had continued to ramble along that route, as she sat frozen behind a tree across the field from the Power Rangers and watched them toss around a very large group of things she overheard being referred to as Putties, and she almost slapped herself when she wondered why she wasn't a Power Ranger being that she had Plausible deniability in spades due to her absentee parents and lack of any real friends beyond acquaintances.

Shock was no one's friend; least of which her IQ's.

It wasn't until a few minutes into the melee, when another Ranger - the Green Ranger who had been tearing up the local news cycles lately - popped in and was addressed by name that everything really started to make sense to her.

Apparently, sweet and awkward Tommy, who was scared of her and flirted with Kim, seemingly overnight transforming into dark and dangerously sexy Tommy, who was rude to Kim and eyed Fiona up regularly while having conversations filled with blatant flirting in between classes, had an actual explanation (beyond the theory of 'too many blows to the head while sparring' that she had been considering).

"Too bad," she muttered, eyes still glued to the fight. "Asshole chauvinist I could have dealt with if that shit had gone anywhere, evil psycho minion? Not so much."

It also finally, sort of, explained _all _of their daily wardrobe choices. Personally, she thought wearing your color all the damned time was a bit like wearing a sign that said, "Power Ranger Here".

And again brought her back to wondering why no one else noticed anything in this damned town.

All six Rangers started moving closer to Fiona's position and she immediately shook all other thoughts off other then getting the hell out of the park and home to have her mental breakdown in private.

* * *

A week after the fight that she had witnessed unknown to the Rangers, Fiona couldn't do anything other then stare in shock as the Fab Five walked into Ernie's, where Fiona had been sitting in the corner tutoring a sixth grader in algebra, with Tommy in tow talking and laughing as though they'd been best friends their entire lives.

She took her attention off her student's homework for a moment and studied the group of six as they settled into a table near where she was sitting. They were loose and relaxed, not a thread of tension between the original five and Tommy, despite the fact that less then seven days earlier they had been in battle against each other.

She obviously, didn't have even the beginnings of a clue as to what had happened exactly; but, she had seen the news and the Green Ranger had done his damnedest to destroy the Power Rangers and the town on a few occasions.

So, either Tommy had been under some sort of control or the other Rangers took blind trust and letting by-gones be by-gones to a whole other level.

When she overheard the words, 'broken' and 'spell', she relaxed slightly and carefully met Tommy's eyes; raising an eyebrow when he subtly winked at her, reminding her of a conversation she had with him after school at her locker the day after the fight in the park.

He had come up to her locker, leaned against the one next to her's and almost growled out, _"Do we need to have a private discussion about how you really should look into getting glasses since you're obviously seeing things?"_

_Fiona had simply looked at him questioningly, refusing to show that she was halfway between nervous and turned on from the tone of his voice. _

_"Don't play dumb," he had continued, his voice quieting though not softening. "You were at the park. You don't say shit, I won't say shit."_

_"Understood," she had replied cautiously. "Shouldn't you be trying to, I don't know, remove me from this plane of existence?" she added, all the while internally cursing her tendency to get snappy when nervous._

_"Probably," he responded, smirking. "But, you haven't run off to the rainbow brigade yet and, honestly? I kind of like you."_

_"Wonderful," she drawled. "The evil Green Ranger kind of likes me. Isn't that just a stellar character reference. No wonder I have so many friends. Besides, with the way you were tossing the others around they wouldn't be much help anyway. I'd have better luck kneeing you below the belt myself."_

_Tommy had simply laughed and tugged on the end of her hair before replying, "That's why I like you. You're funny."_

_"And you're bat shit. But we all have our quirks."_

He had walked away immediately after, but not before shooting her the same wink he had just given her from across the room. Only this time the wink was followed by an awkward shrug, and a somewhat sad smile instead of a smirk, as he turned his attention back to his new friends, his new life, and the girl in pink who fit into both perfectly and was once again smiling coyly in his direction.

Rolling her eyes and ignoring the pang in her chest Fiona fervently wished to develop the same case of selective blindness that the rest of Angel Grove apparently had as she was fairly certain it would be the only way to survive the rest of high school without going crazy or getting her heart broken.

* * *

**End Note: **Again, this was just supposed to be a small slice into the fact that someone had to have noticed something weird going on - and personally I always figured it would have been a peer 'cause teenagers think like teenagers. After all, all of Buffy's classmates admitted they knew what the hell was going on during the Prom when they gave her the "Class Protector" award.  
I'm already considering expanding on this (either in a longer story or more one-shots) if there is interest in Fiona as an 'observer'/'outside' character as I have ideas flowing like crazy at the moment. Though, I can categorically say outright at no point would she become a Ranger. That'd defeat the purpose of the original idea.

Feed the author! Reviews and _constructive_ criticism will be met with cookies...Flames will be met with, well, flames.


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